12-03-2016, 05:57 PM
Mixed, not mastered.
I didn't think I was going to mix this, but simply get as far as the outline sketch of a shortened version of the song ready for mixing, and leave it at that. But here it is. I had a vision, and despite the issues in the tracking as mentioned in the original preamble (and some which weren't)...ended up caving into the desire to pursue the vision.
One of the main challenges I found was balancing the song's overall loudness throughout. The outro section wanted to be manically hot relative to the earlier sections, but working with this over-compressed area wasn't a joy because some emotional energy gets lost and the song gets compromised (but not by the mixing engineer!). The only way to retain it, is to keep the loudness intact, but that fights the other areas of the mix and the levels end up being totally disproportional. And i won't even mention the mess it makes of the integrated loudness and especially the momentary loudness levels! Very tricky.
I found the e-gtr and the acoustic gtrs were difficult to differentiate in the song, even with EQ, so I ended up re-amping which I felt gave a gentle colouration change but hopefully not enough to sound out-of-context. Lots of mutes going on here too. The reversed guitar part is ducked by the acoustic gtr to create some interplay between the textures. Actually, I counted 7 sidechains running in the end, which surprised me. The snare in the tracking sounded totally out of context with the concept, so that was shaped (it had been clipped in the original tracking, intentionally or otherwise). The kick's fundamental was really low, so I pulled it up more, and so on and so forth. There's an instrumental section which was crying out for something different beyond what was threatening to be monotony from the acoustic and electrics even in the cut-down version.....my ears were seeking something to offer contrast, but which gave context, so out came the orchestra to help drive the emotional element called for in the song (he says, subjectively!).
I make no apologies for the sound bite, by the way; I've earned my right to put it here...and this is my mix so don't moan about it.
I had great fun exploring.....thanks again for making it available, and thanks to those who take a listen.....and especially those who give some [useful] feedback beyond simply expressing that they don't like strawberry ripple ice cream on their hotdogs...or try to criticise an apple because it doesn't look or taste like an orange, to put it metaphorically. Let's keep things objective please and personal tastes which are subjective, out of it. Thanks in advance.
Looking forward to hearing and reviewing other threads of this song in due course.
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Mixed using only sustainable energy....sun, wind, chocolate, beer and love.
I didn't think I was going to mix this, but simply get as far as the outline sketch of a shortened version of the song ready for mixing, and leave it at that. But here it is. I had a vision, and despite the issues in the tracking as mentioned in the original preamble (and some which weren't)...ended up caving into the desire to pursue the vision.
One of the main challenges I found was balancing the song's overall loudness throughout. The outro section wanted to be manically hot relative to the earlier sections, but working with this over-compressed area wasn't a joy because some emotional energy gets lost and the song gets compromised (but not by the mixing engineer!). The only way to retain it, is to keep the loudness intact, but that fights the other areas of the mix and the levels end up being totally disproportional. And i won't even mention the mess it makes of the integrated loudness and especially the momentary loudness levels! Very tricky.
I found the e-gtr and the acoustic gtrs were difficult to differentiate in the song, even with EQ, so I ended up re-amping which I felt gave a gentle colouration change but hopefully not enough to sound out-of-context. Lots of mutes going on here too. The reversed guitar part is ducked by the acoustic gtr to create some interplay between the textures. Actually, I counted 7 sidechains running in the end, which surprised me. The snare in the tracking sounded totally out of context with the concept, so that was shaped (it had been clipped in the original tracking, intentionally or otherwise). The kick's fundamental was really low, so I pulled it up more, and so on and so forth. There's an instrumental section which was crying out for something different beyond what was threatening to be monotony from the acoustic and electrics even in the cut-down version.....my ears were seeking something to offer contrast, but which gave context, so out came the orchestra to help drive the emotional element called for in the song (he says, subjectively!).
I make no apologies for the sound bite, by the way; I've earned my right to put it here...and this is my mix so don't moan about it.
I had great fun exploring.....thanks again for making it available, and thanks to those who take a listen.....and especially those who give some [useful] feedback beyond simply expressing that they don't like strawberry ripple ice cream on their hotdogs...or try to criticise an apple because it doesn't look or taste like an orange, to put it metaphorically. Let's keep things objective please and personal tastes which are subjective, out of it. Thanks in advance.
Looking forward to hearing and reviewing other threads of this song in due course.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Mixed using only sustainable energy....sun, wind, chocolate, beer and love.
Beware...........Cognitive Dissonance!